bakerstreet | OH BABY, IT'S A LONG WAY DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THE RIVER

"Some place for a medbay." Kylo scoffed.

If there was such a thing here, he'd never been privy to it. If he or one of the other knights fell ill or was injured during training, they were left to their own devices. Even after the events of Starkiller Base, which nearly killed him, Kylo hadn't been offered any kind of healing once he arrived at the citadel. At least, nothing besides time and whatever natural remedies he could forage for.

As they descended farther, the smell grew more pungent and noxious. Eventually, faint light could be seen through the cracks in the wall. They were nearly to the bottom.

He felt a menacing presence touch the edge of his mind.

"Whatever's down here... I think it knows we're here."

"I could try to mask us again, but I don't know how long it would hold." It was as close as he was going to get to actually admitting that he was running on empty at that point, probably had been for a while even with the borrowed energy from the wellspring under the spire, in the throne room.

He was used to using his powers, of course, but only for limited abilities at a low level all the time, not multiple abilities, some he wasn't even trained on, for extended periods, it was probably a wonder he hadn't burned himself out completely at that point, though it was likely he was going to before long if he kept at it.

Kylo caught the meaning behind Hux's warning, and he spared him a concerned glance. "Then conserve your power until we need it the most."

Each step now felt like an eternity. Kylo was fastidious in searching for possible traps, but there was nothing there. It was almost as if whatever was down there actually wanted them to make it the rest of the way undisturbed.

The stairwell curved. The bottom was now in sight. A yellowish light bathed the wall where the stairs ended. The stench of chemicals was pungent enough to mask death itself. The faint sound of machinery echoed in what must have been a fairly large chamber. If not a medbay, then... a lab of some sort?

Kylo had a really bad feeling about this place.

Hux kept close, likewise on the lookout for anything that could be a further trap, even though the chemical smell was stinging his throat and the inside of his nose every time he breathed, strong enough now that it was making his eyes water. It wasn't yet enough to make him dizzy, but it was enough that he felt like he had to sneeze, or cough, enough to make it feel like he couldn't quite get a full breath.

He was still concerned as to what they were going to find, though perhaps not as unsettled as Kylo was, something that in and of itself concerned Hux, he hadn't ever seen the other man quite this rattled and he didn't like it.

When they finally reached the bottom, a disturbing sight lay before them. It was a lab of some sort, built not only for experimentation, but also preservation. All the chemicals and machines were connected in some way to the large tank in the middle of the room - containing what Kylo Ren could only define as "Snoke."

Never had he felt such a disturbance in the Force.

"Kriff..." he muttered under his breath, ignoring the acidic tang at the back of his throat.

This was their enemy. This had been their enemy all along. The one on the surface was merely a container, a shell for the shapeless, timeless essence that lingered in this underground laboratory.

Kylo could sense Snoke watching them, studying them. There was no fear, only great expectations of what was about to unfold. And the only reason Kylo didn't charge headfirst into the room and slash everything to pieces was the intent he gleamed through the Force.

"It's debating." he hissed. "Between us. It wants one of us. It needs a new host..."

At the same time, familiar footsteps could be heard on the stairs. The stormtroopers had made it out of the detention block and had finally caught up to their leaders.

He turned his head just slightly, not enough to take his eyes off of Kylo or the lab, but enough to be heard by the troopers on the stairs as he barked: "Stay back!" There was no sense in giving the thing any more options than it already had.

He also doubted that the trick he'd used upstairs, masking them both and moving slowly would work, if only because he knew his own energy wouldn't last long if he tried, and would likely leave them exposed at the worst possible moment.

"We could always just set everything on fire and seal the door." He commented mildly, only half-serious.

Kylo missed Hux's quip. He was too focused on the laughter he sensed inside his head, the feeling that Snoke already had an advantage that they didn't know about and the footsteps of the Stormtrooper unit...

Footsteps. The troopers heard Hux's order, but completely ignored it.

A familiar chill crept down Kylo's spine and he glimpsed a vision through the Force. Hands in white armor. A body, perhaps his own, strapped to a table. A mouth pried open in a silent scream. A kiss of death where everything fades to black.

He immediately thrust his lightsaber toward the approaching unit. The vengeful spirits in the detention block had found new homes - and Snoke was determined to be next.

"Those aren't our troopers!" he shouted, keeping himself between the Stormtroopers and his new Emperor. "If any in the squad are missing, contact Phasma. She needs to know!"

He had to do a quick mental comparison, matching the number of doors to the number of troopers, and while those two numbers matched, he couldn't tell just how many troopers were actually on the stairs, because if that was anything less than they'd started with, he had to try and get a call through to Phasma, though that was proving difficult, either due to the proximity of the lab equipment, or due to just how far down they were.

He hoped that his order to stay put, and his warning not to trust any of the troopers returning from their honor guard got through to her, but he couldn't be positive that it had.

They would have to trust... and hope. But even more importantly, they would have to defend themselves from multiple foes at once, and in unfamiliar territory. This laboratory was Snoke's true sanctum, and they had breached it.

The presence within the tube called out to its newfound servants. Kylo heard it in his mind and perhaps Hux did too. Seize them.</>

He definitely heard it, and more than that he felt it, an uncomfortable ice-water shiver down his spine. He knew the reach of Kylo's saber would keep the troopers at bay at least for a short while, but the pair of them were going to have to get somewhere more defensible as soon as possible, which didn't seem likely, given the layout of the lab.

As dangerous as it was to move closer to the vat that held Snoke, he knew it was also their best bet as far as not getting shot at, as he doubted the troops would risk injuring their new master with a stray shot. It wasn't a sure bet, of course, but it was better than nothing, and something he tried to relay to Kylo through thought alone, not wanting to risk Snoke actually picking up on it, his thoughts, Hux knew, were still his own. He'd kept them masked for so long that even on reduced energy, he would have to make a conscious effort to un-mask them.

Kylo dared to catch Hux's eyes for a moment before he turned his attention back to the Stormtroopers. In an instant, Hux's thoughts were made clear.

Kylo nodded, Force pushing the first two troopers back into the wall to buy them time to move.
Those two dropped their weapons, but two more drew their guns and fired. The blaster bolts, however, froze in the air midway between them.

"...now." He grunted.

Deeper within the lab, they could at least find partial cover. The vat itself (and an empty one just like it) was connected to a myriad of machines - life support systems, regulators and the like - that Snoke wouldn't want damaged.

And once it became close-quarters combat instead of blasters, Hux knew he'd have the upper hand, he was as ruthless in hand-to-hand as he was in anything, everything else, and even against a now-possessed opponent in armor, he still favored his own chances of winning.

At the agreement from Kylo, he all but dove, forcing himself past his discomfort about the room and into the room itself, keeping one eye on the troopers and one on Kylo, while still trying to sort out what equipment was the most important so he'd know where to start yanking cables once he had the chance.

Kylo covered Hux as he ran, deflecting several blaster bolts with his lightsaber. The troopers he knocked away picked themselves up just as quickly, and charged headfirst into the fray. He goaded one of them in front of the frozen blaster bolt before releasing it. The other, he decapitated with a single blow.

That, unfortunately, proved to be a grave mistake.

A chill ran up Kylo's spine and he instinctively Force pushed the body as far away as he could. The head rolled next to his feet, and he could feel something dreadfully familiar escape from the open throat.

"Shit!"

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Snoke cackled. The vengeful spirit lunged at Kylo, and once again, it took everything he had simply to hold the incorporeal form at bay.

"Hux!"

He tried to freeze the other troopers, but every time he split his attention, he could taste death against his lips. The wraith was trying to force its way inside him. To take him and use him.

Kylo couldn't let that happen.

"Don't... kill... any more of th..."

He choked on his words as he felt another spirit rush him from behind.

This time Hux could actually see them, and as more than just the flickering heat-haze shimmer that he'd seen before. They were definitely more solid than they looked, he could tell that much, and definitely more dangerous.

He'd been about to warn Kylo of the same thing and instead just cursed, rather creatively. Knocking the troopers unconscious he could do, but only if they got close enough, and he wasn't sure they were going to be stupid enough to take that kind of chance.

But he also wasn't going to let the specter attempting to ambush Kylo get away with it, either, not about to let it get its hooks in. He snarled, moving forward quick and fluid, prepared to tear it away with his bare hands, even though touching it was enough to send a shock of cold almost all the way up to his shoulder, a sort of bone-deep ache.

It was anyone's guess how long the first wraith had been starving. These two had fed on the life force of the Stormtroopers they inhabited and it made them stronger, brighter and more intelligent. (Or perhaps, merely less desperate.)

The attack on Kylo was calculated. As he struggled to hold and tear through the first one, stumbling closer to the equipment in the lab, his back was exposed. The Stormtroopers aimed and fired where they could, but Hux was right - they were unwilling to damage the equipment in the lab. So the specter waited and then it struck.

Kylo gasped as he felt the chill against his spine, but then he heard Hux grunt beside him.

"If they get one of us, one of us is ending up in that tube!!" he screamed in a single breath, tightening his grip on the spirit and the Dark Side of the Force. He couldn't let them win. He couldn't let this one have his body. He couldn't let the other one get inside of Hux. He couldn't...

When he ripped the spirit apart, the tear in the Force was beyond satisfying.

Even as tired as he was, Hux had been calculating the size, shape, and placement of the room, and unless he was further off in his assessment than he thought, it was the empty suspension vat that was under the wellspring of power generated by the spire, and not the one that actually had Snoke -or what was left of Snoke- in it. But at the moment he had no way of communicating that to Kylo, maybe if they got a chance to breathe.

He didn't have the kind of control or skill needed to tear the thing apart, all he could do was keep it off of Kylo and keep it at arm's reach of himself, though for the time being it seemed more interested in his enforcer, which was likely the only thing that actually saved Hux at the moment.

"Kylo!" There was an edge of desperation just to that one word, because with the first of the wraiths dispatched, the one Hux had ahold of renewed its efforts to get away and Hux had to hold onto it with both hands. He knew that chill in his skin, seemingly all the way through to the bone, from touching it was going to linger and at the moment he could only hope that it would eventually ease.

As soon as the agonizing screams of the dying spirit rippled into the Force, Kylo spun on his heels. He gripped the specter with both hands and immediately started tearing into it.

"You're mine!!"

Again, an unspoken command, Seize them!, echoed in their minds. The possessed Stormtroopers, now realizing the pair's strategy, split up along the sides of the room. They would have the cover, and the danger of firing on their master would be drastically reduced.

Hux snarled again when he realized what was happening, and all he said was: "Cover me." He already knew that Kylo would be able to hold a blaster bolt, maybe two, but he could deflect them.

Above all else, Hux was an engineer, and while he hadn't designed any suspension tanks like this, he knew that it wouldn't take long to figure out how to dismantle the controls, as long as he had the chance to actually do so. But he also knew he was going to have to burn through the last shreds of his energy reserve to keep himself masked again, difficult to hold onto if that's the tactic Snoke used once he realized what was going on.

Hux didn't wait for a confirmation, knowing that Kylo would do as he asked, already scanning the nearest control panel for -there it was- a maintenance hatch. He pulled that away, just looking over the interior at first, to identify what he could before masking himself completely as he started re-wiring. the tanks were designed to drain the full one into the empty one when Snoke got his new host, but Hux's intention was to do so with that second tank still empty, something that would leave Snoke exposed.

Kylo wrestled with the wraith in his hands, wounding it as he stumbled behind Hux. As the troopers started firing, he thrust a hand out. The margin was far too narrow. The bolts stopped too close for comfort, but he was able to hold them as they passed. All the while, he kept fighting the specter in his grasp.

When Hux made a move for the maintenence panel, Kylo physically covered him, deflecting everything he could. The Stormtroopers only got lucky when he finally tore the wraith apart. One shot hit the control panel. Sparks shot out in all directions. Another hit Kylo in the arm. But if the trooper was expecting to knock the knight off his footing, he was sorely mistaken.

With the wraith gone, he ignited his saber again. Deflecting became much easier after that, and he shoved them all back against the wall with a Force push.

"How's it coming?" He shouted, readying himself for the next wave when they stood back up.

Hux didn't answer immediately, instead there was a crackle of electricity and a wisp of smoke along with the smell of burned electronics, even faintly burned hair, and the whole apparatus gave a hollow clunk before the transfer siphon gulped to life, slowly drawing the suspension fluid from the tank containing what was left of Snoke and pumping it into the currently empty tube.

He wriggled himself out of the control hatch, still keeping low so as not to draw more fire. He wasn't sure what good it would really do except to make it easier for them to get at the thing that had been Snoke, something that would leave him more vulnerable, especially if Hux managed to either get the troopers to shoot through the other vat, or get Kylo to simply lightsaber it open, spilling the bacta solution onto the floor and likely into the rest of the equipment.

The sheer feeling of panic that followed the sabotage was all the confirmation Kylo needed that the tide had turned in their favor. Snoke's whisper turned desperate. The Stormtroopers charged and the added momentum only sent them flying back against the wall harder and faster when Kylo flicked his wrist.

"Good work." he smiled.

Praise, however, was short-lived. In the back of their minds, they could hear Snoke's next command, Shed your skin and stop them!

Immediately, the five remaining troopers dropped like discarded rag dolls. Kylo knew he only had a moment before they were completely surrounded by the remainder of Snoke's army of vengeful wraiths.

"Hux, take this!" Kylo thrust his active saber into the other man's hands. It would do him little good against the spirits, but could be put to far better uses elsewhere. "Kill him! Destroy everything!! I'll hold them off as long as I can!"

While Hux knew it wasn't actually the case, he still felt as if the heat of the saber dispelled the chill up his arm from where he'd taken hold of the wraith. He wanted to tell Kylo to keep it, but he knew that it wouldn't do him any good against those specters and that alone had a spike of worry landing in the pit of his stomach.

But all the same he nodded once, not wasting time by yanking Kylo down for a kiss, though the urge to do so was there. Instead he just spun, lashing out at the tank that contained Snoke's still-living husk.

Hux only barely registered the fact that he was snarling, fully focused on his task, leaving the pump running, keeping it in his mind's eye as what not to destroy even as he hacked at power cables and couplings and finally the tank itself, already more than half-empty.

He could feel the thing's claws in his mind, where his mask had started to fail or Snoke had managed to peel it away at the corner, and he could taste blood, not sure whether his nose had started bleeding again or if he'd bitten his tongue in his fury, though moments later it didn't matter as the transparisteel of the tank finally gave way, the rest of the fluid -thick and viscous- spilled out, pulling Snoke along with its momentum, even despite the fact that he was still connected to a respirator among other things.

Connections that Hux was already slicing through, the saber snarling in his hands, apparently just as angry as the man himself.

Later, perhaps, there would be time enough for that kiss, just as there would be time enough for Kylo to playfully berate Hux for destroying the citadel the same way he used to take his rage out on the Finalizer. But at the moment, he could only hope the Emperor's anger would fuel his connection to the Dark Side and that the Force would protect him from whatever Snoke might still be capable of.

At the moment, he had his hands full.

Filled with the life force of their recent hosts, the wraiths seemed to glow in the lab's flashing lights. They came, all at once, and Kylo intercepted them. He seized the first one with both hands, tearing into it with all his strength. The others were right there, and he struggled to move. He had to evade and lure at the same time. He had to protect Hux. He had to give him every possible moment to kill Snoke.

The moment the tank shattered, Kylo took his chances.

He threw himself into the other tank, breaking through the glass. The chemicals burned as they showered him, but he pushed through the pain. It was enough to help him tear through the wraith in his grasp and the energy flooding through him would be more than enough to draw the others in.

Hux hadn't been wrong, the suspension fluid was mostly concentrated bacta, though he knew that wasn't all there was to it, and he didn't want to know what else was there when he was already standing ankle-deep in it, he just had to hope that it wasn't anything that would do Kylo more damage than the wraiths and the shattered transparisteel had already done.

Out of the liquid and removed from the elaborate life-support system, the thing that had been Snoke was already starting to shrivel, withered skin tightening over twisted bones, remembering the lesson learned from killing the possessed troopers, he didn't actually kill the thing, just watched and waited as it seemed to mummify, those claws in his mind growing weaker and finally falling away completely, though not without tearing at his defenses one last time, shredding through the remainder of his masking, leaving him almost as much of a beacon as Kylo was in that gathered energy.

Hux understood now, why it was the empty chamber that had been in the wellspring, still near enough that it would aid in keeping Snoke alive, but more than that: so that his chosen host would stay strong and end up stronger once he had been transferred to the new body. It was something that made Hux's skin crawl, and something he wasn't going to think about any further, instead he used the last of his rage -already starting to sputter out, like the stub of a candle- to round on the wraiths still surrounding Kylo.

That would be another thought saved for later - which one of them was truly destined to become the next Snoke. And which one the next wraith.

With one of the five destroyed, Kylo positioned himself in the center of that wellspring and held his ground. Unfortunately, he'd shattered too much of the tubing for it to cover him, but that might have been for the best. A false sense of security would only end in death.

Immediately, he felt a powerful surge of Force energy. There was nothing below them but stone. This was the focal point of the entire citadel. The vicious specters went wild, just as that one had with Hux - desperate to make this their next meal.

And Kylo let them come. He drew that energy into himself and channeled it into the strongest attack he'd ever made. He held nothing back. A mighty scream echoed in the chamber as all four wraith were torn to shreds in a single strike! The explosion of Force energy was more than enough to shatter the remainder of the tube, short out the rest of the lab equipment and even shake the ground.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject